Armenia's president makes historic trip to Turkey

The Armenian president, Serzh Sarkisian, visited Turkey last night to attend a World Cup football qualifying match as the two nations stepped towards reconciliation after a century of hostility.

5:16PM BST 14 Oct 2009

Two other Armenian presidents have visited Turkey in the past for international gatherings, but Mr Sarkisian was the first to come on a bilateral occasion.

Mr Sarkisian flew in to the northwestern city of Bursa just four days after Turkey and Armenia, backed by world powers, signed milestone deals aimed at ending decades of hostility and establishing formal ties.

The two nations have been estranged since the First World War when, Armenians say, 1.5 million of their kin were killed by their Ottoman rulers in what was a genocide, a label Turkey fiercely rejects.

Swiss-mediated talks since August 2007 resulted on Saturday in the signing of two protocols that pave the way for establishing official relations and opening the border between the two countries.

The deals still need parliamentary ratifications to take effect and the process is certain to be uphill amid nationalist ire in both countries.

For many Turks, the peace effort amounts to selling out Azerbaijan, one of Ankara's closest allies, whose conflict with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region had led Turkey in 1993 to seal its border with Armenia.